Hello and welcome back.

One of the things writers do when preparing for a novel is character interviews. So I will start sharing the interviews with my characters from No Remorse No Regret. First up is the interview with Melissa.

IW – Melissa, tell me what got you into this career.

Melissa – I didn’t have much of a choice.

IW – in what way?

Melissa – I was accidentally rescued by Danil Burlomov. He thought I was a bag of drugs dumped from a plane. He scooped me out of the water and put a gun at the back of my head and forced me to kill a man. From that point I was his to do with whatever he pleased.

IW – There was no way to ever go to the police?

Melissa – Oh yeah, I could have confessed to killing someone. How would that have helped me? I was just doing what I had to do to survive.

IW – And what about the families of the people you killed?

Melissa – It was a job, I was good at it. Or rather I had to become good at it in order to survive.

IW – You didn’t answer the question.

Melissa – I guess it’s bad for the families.

IW – You guess it was bad for the families?

Melissa – What do you want me to say? They made their choice to get into a life of crime. It’s the same thing they tell police, firefighters and people who go into the military. There’s an inherent risk to those jobs. Everybody knows the possibility of dying in the line of duty when they sign up. It’s the same as becoming a criminal. They know the risks, if they didn’t want the possibility of getting killed they should have chosen a less dangerous career.

IW – And what of you getting into this career.

Melissa – Like I said earlier, a life of crime was forced on me.

IW – And that makes everything you did justified?

Melissa – There was a time when I was very religious, before Colton Harris and Danil grabbed hold of me. What type of God would create monsters like that?

IW – Or you?

Melissa – Who’s to say I wasn’t the lightning or hammer to bring down men who harm women? If he’s going to create men who do that, it was only fair that he would create one woman who would strike back.

IW – What if you had killed an innocent man?

Melissa – I made sure they were all guilty.

IW – That’s what you hope isn’t it?

Melissa – Yes. (she pauses here for a little while) I was an innocent girl who had her life stolen from her. I had dreams and goals. I was going to move to Hollywood and be a movie star. Eddie and I were going to get married. We were engaged. Danil made me break up with him.

IW – Have you followed Eddie’s career?

Melissa – Yes. I’m happy for him that his dreams have come true. He’s on the sitcom You’ve Got Mail, the show adapted from the movie. He’s also done some TV movies. He might get a feature film soon.

IW – How do you feel about him now?

Melissa – You’re asking if I still love him?

IW – yes

Melissa – I don’t have room for love in my life anymore.

IW – so the answer is yes.

Melissa – The answer is, I don’t have time, or room for love in my life anymore.

IW – Okay then. In your role as lead councilor of the rape survivor’s group, you got a list of people to strike back at. What’s your opinion on rape prevention.

Melissa – It’s a load of crap.

IW – In what way?

Melissa – Any woman who’s ever been raped never did anything wrong. The approach should be teach men not to rape not teach women to avoid being raped.

IW – Philosophically you are right. But,

Melissa – There’s no but about it. No means no.

IW – As a practical matter, men who rape women don’t care about women’s rights.

Melissa – No they don’t.

IW – If a course was created to teach men not to rape would the instructor only be preaching to the choir?

Melissa – I would guess so. But the way to do it is show how committing sexual assault will ruin the man’s life. Because obviously if the man does something like that he doesn’t care about how it will ruin the woman’s life. Look at all the Hollywood movie producers and the actors and the news people who’ve lost their careers. And if you show university athletes what happened to those who raped a girl. If he has any chance of going pro, no pro sports team in any league is even going to look at a kid who does that. Of course it has more to do with their liability than women’s safety. After all if a team drafts or signs a convicted rapist and the guy does it again, the team is looking at a hundred million dollar lawsuit.

IW – What are your plans should you ever get free of Danil?

Melissa – I’d like to do some skiing. Maybe buy a house down by the beach. I’d like to get a dog or a cat.

IW – Don’t have one now?

Melissa – Danil would never let me have a pet.

IW – Did you have one as a kid?

Melissa – Yeah, we pretty much always had a dog and a cat. They always brought so much joy. The dog is always happy to see you, almost jumps out of his skin when you come home. The cat lets you pet her when she’s in the mood for it.

IW – Well, we’ve come to the end of our time. We’ll have to chat again some time.

Melissa – Just make sure Danil doesn’t find out you talked to me.

IW – Definitely not.

I hope you enjoyed the interview, there will be more with the other characters in the coming weeks. To check out Melissa further buy the book below: